Subramoney.com is a blog / website written by P V Subramanyam a past member of the stock exchange and has a reasonable working knowledge of the equity markets. He has been a trainer in banks, life insurance companies, mutual funds and brokerage houses, and claims he knows how many of these organisations work.

He has dealt with clients and read up a few books, so he thinks he understands client psychology.

However all these are claims and not substantiated by any great empirical publicly available evidence. He has passed a few final exams, has lost a few marksheets, but his name appears as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The other accounting and secretarial institute do not recognize him as a member. Not sure if he is paying any of the membership fees though.

His brokerage experience from 1979 to 1993 : should be considered useless because at that time the market was in a physical mode. Now it is in electronic mode, and I can assure you, he is technologically challenged.

Brokerage house: He used to run a brokerage house where 100% of the business was delivery business. Nowadays the delivery value is about 5%. Of this he knows everything.

He, out of abundant caution, wishes to tell you the following:

Your capital is at risk when you invest in shares – you can lose some or all of your money, so never risk more than you can afford to lose. If you did not know that at least he has told you that. That is risk. A huge risk.

Shares spoken about in Subramoney may be small company shares. These can be illiquid and difficult to sell especially in a hurry and there can be a large bid/offer spread. So if you need to sell soon after you’ve bought, you might get back less than you paid, if you are able to sell. It is not easy to sell Rane Madras and Wendt India in a hurry.

This can make them riskier than other investments especially in the short run. Some investments may be denominated in a currency other than the Rupee. The return from these may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations. Subramoney does not understand currencies inspite of carrying all those Forex  trading ads on his blog. At this point he does not even have a valid passport – in a way this is good you can be sure he is in some forest of India, if he were to go missing.

Subramoney may recommend investment in funds. A fund’s performance relies on the performance of the underlying investments and currently it looks like there is NO counter-party default risk which could result in a loss not represented by the underlying index. Please note that the information and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of other editors/ contributors or sensible people who KNOW that the mutual fund industry, life insurance industry, etc. have to be protected.

After all who is Subramoney to say that Air India, the mutual fund industry, etc. should survive or not? If the common man did not go to the Financial Planner, and the FP does not invest in mutual funds, or does not buy shares in the stock exchanges, or does not buy ULIP, what will the media do? What will the regulators do?

And what the f…….will Subra do?

Past performance and forecasts are not reliable indicators of future results. Commissions, fees and other charges can reduce returns from investments. Always seek personal advice if you are unsure about the suitability of any investment.

Profits from share dealing are a form of income and subject to taxation. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future.

Subramoney’s readers COULD be investing alongside subscribers – but with a time lag. Exactly at that time he could be shorting, going long or underwriting an IPO. He could even be marketing some product – but needless to say he does not market through his blog. His blogging has not increased his Training Revenues, and Training is his main source of income. Yes he trains the who’s who of Indian BFSI, and generally has a great feed back.

ps: did this post after people asked me ‘what is my take on the markets’. Frankly it can be very different from yours, terribly inaccurate, and still not affect the life of Subra. It could shatter your life, on the other hand. Caveat Emptor.